This invention relates to the display of program schedule information and other data to cable television subscribers on a selected channel and is an improvement over the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,579 and in prior copending application U.S. Ser. No. 683,954, filed May 6, 1976, owned in common with the present application.
In the aforementioned prior copending application, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein, program schedule information as well as commercial advertising matter is recorded as images on film from which video signals are derived through a pair of video record players. The video record players are of a commercially available flying-spot scanner type having two film frame channels and a film transport mechanism modified to effect bi-directional movement of the film under automatic control. Movement of the film in opposite directions, one frame at a time, is effected in one of the video record players to alternately display different program scheduling information while unidirectional movement of the film in the other of the video record players is reversed after the information recorded on one channel frame is exhausted, so that additional information on the other frame channel may be displayed. Conventional audio tape players are operated in synchronized relation to each of the video record players in order to produce accompanying audio signals fed to the transmitter. Incremental movement of the film in each of the video record players is effected by a reversing drive arrangement operating through a self-locking gear to advance the film one frame at a time in opposite directions. The reversing drive arrangement is operated in synchronized relationship to a frame channel changer. Precise stopping of the film is controlled by synchronized signals recorded on the film itself between the frames. Operation of the audio tape players is coordinated with the video record players through track changer and stop/start controls and synchronized by means of signal tones recorded on one of the tracks of the audio tape. A motor driven sequence control associated with the system selects the different program schedule and commercial information in a cyclically repeating sequence with periodic updating of the information.
The sequence controller disclosed in the aforementioned copending application is of the electromechanical type. Further, the color generating facilities available with the video record player units were not utilized. It is, therefore, an important object of the present invention to provide a system for displaying program schedule information which avoids as much as possible the use of electromechanical controls and expands the amount of information stored as well as to enlarge the type of information displayed so as to include time and temperature data and color.